25. Mother Dearest

Chapter twenty-five

Mother Dearest

A fter lunch, everyone splits up to go and do their own thing. Only Nolan and Seth remain with me in the living room. Seth tells me that I should sit in Kane’s usual spot by the windowsill, so I do, keeping a solid look outside. I mean, why else would he tell me to sit here? As they both continue conversing with each other for the next twenty minutes, I see a car pull up. My jaw drops as a blonde steps out of the car with her high heels and blazer jacket.

“Oh, fuck.” Are the first words that come out of my mouth as I recognize my mother. Nolan jumps up and comes to my side trying to see what I was looking at. “What is she doing here?” As the next words that leave my mouth, I can see my father hop out from the other side of the cab. “Oh shit, they have no idea why I'm here. I don't even know how they found me. The school must have given them my different postal address.”

“I'm assuming that means you didn't tell your mother you were staying in a frat house.” Nolan states rather than questions. I nod sheepishly. I take a deep breath as I head towards the front door and open it. I run out towards my mother hoping that her excitement to see me will overlay the disappointment that I'm no longer at the sorority that she hoped I would be at.

“Baby girl!” She exclaims that she opens her arms to embrace me. “My goodness, I was so worried when I went to the other sorority house and you weren't there. The girls told me you left and came here, why on Earth would you disappear like that?” I don't really know how to respond to my mother, but I suppose there is nothing better than the truth.

“They were horrible. I couldn't be around people like that. I figured I'd be better off sleeping on the street than with them.”

“You should have called us immediately.” As my mother continues to berate me, my father comes around from the other side of the cab and gives me a hug as well. “We need to make sure that you're safe. You're all we have.” If I don't stop her soon, she'll keep going.

“Mama, I was absolutely going to call you. But I was lucky. Some other students were out for a walk that night and they found me. They offered me a room in their house and I was extremely grateful for it.” Now how do I get her to turn around and leave without going inside the house and finding out that it's for boys? As if by his terrible stroke of luck, both Hunter and Byron come back from wherever they just were. They waved to me as the head around the back of the house not paying me any further mind.

“Oh, they’re cute. Are they boyfriends of some of the girls that live here?”

I've never been able to lie to Mom directly. “No, they're not.” I bite my lip and wonder how to approach this subject.

“Hello, you must be Mr. and Mrs. Weaver.” My heart nearly jumps into my throat when I hear Nolan's voice behind me. He extends a warm and friendly welcome handshake, to which both my parents accept. “I'm Nolan, I'm in charge of the house.”

“Oh, I see you found co-ed dorms to stay in.” My mother was, if nothing else, quite optimistic.

“No, ma'am, we're actually a fraternity. Albeit quite a small one.”

“Did you just say fraternity, as in all males?” And it finally clicks. “Amelia, are you telling me that you've been staying in a house with only men in it this entire time? Sororities are designed to show you what the rules are. Fraternities are there just for fun.”

“With all due respect, Mrs. Weaver,” Nolan begins, “, I can guarantee you that no one in this fraternity is like any other. We've all done our best to make sure that Amelia feels as welcome as possible. We respected her wishes that she wanted to work her way to find her own place to live, but we certainly weren't going to let her live on the street.”

“As much as I do thank you for making sure my daughter wasn't living on the street, I'm sure you can understand that I do believe boys only have one thing on their mind and I don't want my daughter being surrounded by them, especially when she has no one on her side to protect her.”

“Amelia is the most protected person in this house.” I bite my lip further as I hear Seth join us. The last thing I needed was for more of the guys to come forward and start causing a scene. “I'm Seth Hart, it’s a pleasure to meet you again.”

“Again? I'm sorry dear. Where have we met before?”

“I don't think I look very much the same as I did back then. I would have only been one at the time, but you know my parents. John and Clarice Hart? And his brother James?” As my parents look at him, they almost turn a shade of pure white, which is the astonishing for my mother who is wearing a fake tan.

“Wait, when was this?” I ask Seth.

“A little while before my uncle and his girlfriend had you. Unfortunately, due to some extreme circumstances they had to give you up and they decided to give you to the only two people they knew that needed and wanted a child, because they couldn't have one of their own.” I'm trying to comprehend what he's saying. If his uncle had made, does that mean…?

“We’re cousins?”

“Why does everybody think I was making that up?” Somehow I want confirmation that this is true and the expression on both my mother and father's face do exactly that. I can't believe what's going on right now. This entire time, Seth wasn't just protecting me because he felt that I was lonely or that I was helpless. He was protecting me because I’m his family.

“Sorry,” Mother says trying to shake herself from the shock, “, that's just not what I was expecting when I got out of the cab today. And I certainly wasn't expecting to hear that you're living in a frat house.” And she spirals back.

“Mom, I swear, these are the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. They've done nothing but take care of me.”

“Honey-” My mother tries to continue, but she's stopped when she sees two boys suddenly appear on her side. If there was one time the homicidal merman didn't need to show up, it was probably now.

“Sorry for interrupting.” Kane begins, with Reyes two steps behind him, “Amelia. I just wanted to let you know that while we're at the mall, I picked up some of your pre-ordered college books. Are you okay with me popping them in your room?”

“Oh, um, y-yeah, thank you Kane.” I'm still trying to come down from the shock.

“A-Anyway, where was I?” The last thing I want right now is my mother to remember where she was going with that conversation. And thankfully, she doesn't have much of a chance as another car pulls into the driveway.

“Only old ladies drive that slow.” Valentine exclaims as he gets out of the passenger seat. I'm a little surprised to see that Oliver jumps out of the back passenger seat and goes towards the trunk. Hugh steps out of the drivers seat and leans over the car.

“Driving safe doesn't make me an old lady.” He responds. He's looking a little bit older today, especially since he hasn't shaved. “Driving safe means I get home at the end of the day.”

“No, it means you get back home by the end of tomorrow because you drive that slow.” They continue to bicker as Oliver pulls a large item out of the back boot. My mouth drops a little bit as I see my old guitar case. Why does he have that? My father steps forward and out of our group conversation to go over towards Oliver.

“Excuse me, why do you have my daughter's guitar?” I guess he recognizes the case too. He goes to try and grab the case from Oliver, but I jump forward and dash to stop my father coming too close to Oliver.

“No dad, trust me you don't wanna open that.”

“What do you mean?” My mother comes closer to us to hear what we're trying to say, as does Seth and Nolan.

“When you sent the guitar to me, it ended up with the sorority girls. They…” I don't even know where to go with this conversation. The last thing I wanted to do was tell my father that I wasn't going to play the guitar anymore because the one he gave me was destroyed.

“They broke her guitar.” Nolan finishes for me.

“What?” My father's face breaks, and I can tell that he's upset about it.

“Well, hopefully this will make it playable again.” Oliver places the case down on the grass in front of the house and unclasps the buckles. Inside the case you can see that my guitar neck had been replaced and the front end of the body had been revarnished.

“Oh my god.” I say, “When, I mean, how did you get it fixed? It was so badly damaged. I didn't even notice you took it.”

“It's a little hard to notice things go missing when you shove them in the back of your closet.” Oliver smirks closing the guitar lid and picking it up.

“I'm sorry, did you just confess to going snooping in my room?”

“I had very explicit intentions.”

“Oliver, that guitar itself is quite expensive. Fixing it would have cost a fortune.”

“Pretend it's an early Christmas present, then.” It's easy to say that my dad has already given all of it his vote of approval, especially with the dorky smile that he has spread across his face. Meanwhile, I think about to go into shock. Seth puts a hand on my shoulder, I suppose he might know how I’m feeling right now. I hear three similar voices behind us and I’m now slowly dying inside. Maybe if I just close my eyes I can pretend they don’t exist.

“Oh shit.” I can tell when Hendrik speaks, but that voice sounded so guilty I have to turn around. He and his brothers are tightly holding onto mismatched papers, and he’s even trying with great difficulty to hide it behind his back.

“What are those?” Nolan asks aloud, referring to the possible hundreds of papers in their hands.

“No idea what you’re talking about.” Niles says, refusing along with his brothers to come any closer. As I squint I can see they look a little like ‘lost pet’ posters but the person on them is wearing a shirt similar to one I have. Oh, god. It is one I have.

“Can I see that?” I question, stepping towards them, but they back off from me as I do.

“No!” All three of them shout at me, but unfortunately for them my sudden movement made them drop a few. As I go down to pick up the piece of paper, my mothers hands snatch it from me quickly. I’m mortified. The paper has a large print headline; ‘ Looking for a good time? Call me!’ and beneath it was my picture – or specifically the picture the girls at the sorority took while I was taking off my clothes.

“What the hell is this?” My mother seethes.

“Where the fuck did you lot even get these?” I’m stunned to hear Oliver’s voice, also holding a piece that had dropped on the ground.

“Hey we didn’t do it! They were all over the college!” All over? Richard is rather defensive and I’m sure he means well but I can’t believe those girls did this. “We think we got all of them though and it’s only Sunday so we don’t think too many people saw them.”

“Why didn’t you chuck them?”

“Duh,” Niles interjects, “, if we threw them into a bin they could have blown out or been found by someone.”

Hendrik then smirks, “So we thought we’d come back and burn them.”

“Who did this?” Mom exclaims. I don’t want to answer her, but I have to.

“The girls took this photo of me while I was changing at the sorority. They said if I live with them that I have to do as they say, and they took that as blackmail, that’s why I left.” As much as I felt mortified earlier, my mother looked like she just died inside.

“They took this of you?”

“Yes.” The triplets don’t say anything, but they hold on tight to the papers and start heading inside. Oliver, to my surprise, takes the piece of paper from my mother and places it on top of the one he’s holding and begins to tear them up.

“Oi,” He shouts at the twins, “, the fireplace is fake dumbasses, try the pit out the back.” There’s a pit out the back? He walks off after them with Valentine, Reyes and Kane not far behind. Nolan comes to my side and places a hand on my arm,

“Hey, I’ll speak with the college administrators tomorrow about the Omega Zeta Kappa's.”

“If you do that, it’ll get worse. They still have that photo.” I say, but before either of my parents can interject, Seth perks up.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” He then turns back towards the house, calling after Reyes. What is a psychic and a medium going to do about an entire sorority?

“I apologize Mr. and Mrs. Weaver. If I had known they took that kind of photo I would have retrieved it a lot earlier.” Nolan, you’re a kiss-ass. My mother just puts her hand up, I assume trying to get a grip on this situation.

“No. This is an unusual predicament, and honestly I’m not quite sure how to react right now.”

“Honey,” Dad interrupts her train of thought by wrapping an arm around her, “, your daughter left a hostile situation and looked for somewhere safer.” He turns to me with a smile and a level head, “Are you safe in this house?” I live in a house with demons. Most of them have considered killing me at some stage, Nolan almost did on one of my earlier nights here. Oliver scared me half to death and then saved me from being hit by a car. I witnessed a merman almost drown one of his roommates and soon after I slept with a vampire that could have killed me at any time. And yet…

“I feel like I’m home here.”

Returning to the house with Seth, I feel completely lethargic and very full.

“We definitely shouldn't have asked for dessert.” He chuckles, turning off the car. As I hop out, I lean over the top of the car and speak to him, he faces me promptly.

“Dessert was absolutely in order though. My parents just sprung a surprise visit on me, found out I was living in a frat house, found out that the sorority house I was living in took a picture of me half naked and plastered all over the college. Somehow, Nolan convinced my parents that staying at the house was actually a good idea and they ended up inviting both of us to dinner. Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that you were there tonight with me, but I'm totally confused. My parents should have been scathing , but they weren't. The fact that I'm still standing here right now definitely deserved dessert.” He locks the car, and we start heading up the driveway into the house, but I stop him before we enter. “Hey, why didn't you straight up tell me that we were actually cousins?”

“To be honest, I just wanted to see this whole thing unfold. If I had said it to you at any other point in time, you would have asked a lot of questions.”

“I still have a lot of questions.”

“I know, but I've got something prepared to show you, so hold off until then.”

“Well, if it's already prepared, why can't I see it now?”

“I left it at Mom’s.”

“Right, your mother, who is actually my aunt who I've never met by the way. Can I meet her sometime?”

“Yes, next Saturday week at eleven. We're going to have brunch.”

“I see this has already been pre-planned.”

“Or were you just about to suggest it, and I said it first?” The stupid psychic had me there. Before we even have a chance to finish opening the front door and walking inside, we can already hear the bustle of argumentative voices. It sounds like the guys are trying to plan something for the sorority girls for doing what they did earlier today.

“Guys,” I say catching their attention. In the living room are the triplets, but also Reyes, Echo, Kane, Nolan and Oliver. “I know what they did was bad. But if we retaliate in any way, it'll just get a lot worse.”

“None of us are exactly happy to settle with what they did to you.” Hendrik comments, “, and Reyes won't tell us what he and Seth did earlier today.” I look over at the medium who seems preoccupied with talking to the wall. I can only assume he must be speaking with Ivan.

“Well, if you want to find out, you can always get up really early tomorrow.” Seth smirks.

“How early is early?”

“If you can be at the sorority house before quarter to six in the morning, when the first alarm clock starts to go off, then you'll see exactly what we did.” Now that's tempting.

Echo sighs, “Wait, so making us choose between the quality of sleep and seeing some sorority girls fall on their faces? I'll set my alarm.” I look at my watch and I can see that it's a little past nine. I suppose now would be a good time to go to bed if we're going to be up that early in the morning. Everyone else also seems to look down at their watches or their phones to check the time and comes to the same conclusion.

“How was dinner?” Nolan asks both Seth and I.

“It was actually…really good.” I say with obvious hesitance, “Both my parents came to the conclusion that they're happy for me to stay here. Even though of course I did tell them I was planning to leave as soon as I could afford the rent on my own.” I don't miss the obviously disappointed look that Oliver tries to hide. In fact, quite a few of them are sharing the same expression. “Anyway, I'm really keen to see what these two knuckleheads got up to. So I'm going to get enough sleep so that tomorrow I can still manage to make my way through most of my lectures.” I get a few wishes goodnight, but I stop before I head up the stairs. “Also everyone, I just wanted to say thank you. You've all been really kind to me since I've been here. You didn't need to tolerate me, and you didn't need to share anything with me, but you have. I just wanted to know I really respect each of you and I feel that you're all my friends. If you're happy for me to call you that.”

“Wait, we're not like BFF’s?” Hendrik asks, with a plastered on sad look.

“We're really happy to have you here.” Nolan ends the conversation. As I turned to walk up the stairs, most of the others leave the living room and return to their rooms as well. When I enter my room, I can see that my guitar is laid out on the other bed. I'm feeling an itch to make sure that it's in tune and to maybe play a little bit, but since everyone was going to sleep, it's probably not a good idea to do that now. I feel a tug inside of my chest when I think about Oliver and what he did for me. I want to thank him. In fact, I wanna do a lot of things for him, but I really can't. Fact is, unless he wants to feel sick and drink fish blood every other day, I don't think we're going to be able to get past this. Seth said he needed to drink my blood, but he doesn't seem to think that would work.

Before the play I'm going to have to convince him.